DESIGNATION is NOT a design bootcamp

August 26, 2016

DESIGNATION is a 12-week, immersive bootcamp in Chicago. Built for designers, students will learn User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design in 18 weeks - 5 weeks of prep course work and 12 weeks in-person at the DESIGNATION Labs. (View In-Depth Report)

Will Shandling, DESIGNATION

2016/08/29

We are not a bootcamp. You might find scattered usage of the world bootcamp on our website and elsewhere, but trust us. We’re not a bootcamp.

We’re more like an on-­the-­job immersive crash course in all things UX/UI design.

“Bootcamp” conjures up the image of a place that’s removed from the real world. It feels like a place to isolate yourself so that you can hone your craft, and emerge fully formed and ready to hit the ground running. And maybe for developers, that works.

But it doesn’t work for design.

We know that because we’ve been doing this for years. We’ve graduated 300+ students over 19 cohorts, with a 94% hiring rate of our graduates. And we can safely say that to learn design, you can’t isolate yourself from the professional world. You have to dive head first into it.

With that in mind, here are the two biggest reasons DESIGNATION is a design experience unlike any other program we’re aware of:

1. From 0 to hireable in 24 weeks

The typical timeframe to complete the DESIGNATION experience is 24 weeks—six weeks for our beginner’s course and 18 weeks for our main program. All in all, you’ll spend 12 weeks learning in our virtual environment, and 12 weeks practicing those skills in person.

But think about that for a second. We spend 12 full weeks preparing you to join us here in Chicago. That’s longer than most other programs in their entirety.

It means you don’t just learn the skills once and move on to the next thing. Instead, you have time to practice and iterate upon them multiple times, across a variety of distinct projects. This is essential for an industry as unique and diverse as UX/UI design, and a skillset that can’t be learned in a strictly linear fashion.

2. Live client projects for your portfolio

Ask any hiring manager, and they’ll tell you there’s a world of difference between an academic environment and a professional one. That’s why DESIGNATION provides every student the opportunity to work on actual products from real startups heading into the marketplace.

That way, when you graduate, you don’t just talk about your skills in the abstract. Instead, you talk about what you’ve done. What you’ve built. The clients you’ve worked with. And the way your work is already out in the world with real users.

It’s an invaluable experience for a young designer’s professional development, and it means our graduates leave the program ready to make their mark on the world. With internships, contracts, and full­time positions at top agencies and companies like Microsoft, IBM Design, and @WalmartLabs.

What that all means is that we’re not actually a bootcamp.

DESIGNATION teaches UX/UI design by giving students the opportunity to learn design in a hands­on, professional environment built on the principle of learning by doing.

To learn more, visit designation.io or email Co­Founder and Program Director Will Shandling at will@designation.io.

“DESIGNATION provides students with a valuable overview of different topics within the field of digital design. The teachers are all professionals within their concentrations, and I found them all to be passionate and engaging. Teachers are very willing to work with students individually in and out of class time. They've been great about working with me individually to develop a portfolio. I ...